Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology relating to a confocal scanner, a confocal microscope, and an illumination method.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a spinning-disk confocal microscope is known as an apparatus for implementing multifocal confocal microscopy (see U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0133017). The spinning-disk confocal microscope is generally configured to uniformly illuminate the surface of a spinning disk with a laser beam that has been introduced into a microscope body via an optical fiber. This is because a higher uniformity of illumination on the surface of the spinning disk results in a higher uniformity of multipoint illumination on an object plane and an illumination area on the object plane can be illuminated with a uniform intensity.